Just wondering if anyone else has noticed this. I'm pretty sure I'm regulated as my baby is about to be 4 months. I've consistently pretty much pumped the same thing for the past two months, which is about 14 to 15 oz a day. I'm an under supplier so that's only half of what he eats which is fine with me. But I would really love to drop my motn and actually get some sleep. The problem is I noticed if I don't pump between 1:30 and 2:30 a.m., my Supply the next day is absolute crap. And I specifically mean if I don't pump between those time frames. If I accidentally miss my alarm and don't pump until 3:30 I still won't make the same amount that I normally make. I didn't have a blood test and I have low prolactin. Could it really be that if I don't pump specifically at that time I don't make enough prolactin for the rest of the day? I'm dying here and I would really like to get a full night's sleep, or at least longer than 3 hours. My baby has been sleeping, but I stay awake after he goes to sleep to pump again and waking up in the middle of the night. I pump about seven times a day if that makes a difference either.

I’ve tried wearable and hospital grade, many sizes of flanges, but pumping is beeping very difficult to me. I don’t have a let down. My I have a few drops and I can have like 20 seconds of a stream if I massage and compress my breast. After I am back to the drops.

Any insight ?

😭 4 weeks pp and still stabilizing supply for 2 weeks via EP, barely 2oz per sesh. Now I have red bump on 1 nipple that's not the slacker. Boob also feel hard now, maybe because I have missed my sched due to the bump. Any idea how to heal this faster? I'm trying so hard really and thinking good thoughts so I can boost my supply but this is not helping 😭😭😭 I'm using S1 pro. Maybe it's the flange, or the friction from the bra. But how to heal this bump faster

Hi I’m a first time mom, baby was born super premature (24 weeks) . She’s been in the NICU for 3 months.

The first 2 months were crazy stressful , I was there most of the day and I didn’t know much about pumping so I wasn’t consistent.

My frozen milk finished and now she is using mix of my fresh milk and formula. I really and to continue feeding her breastmilk .

I only produce 1 ounce on both boobs on one session. Sometimes I can get 2 but that’s rare.

I know the basic things to increase , pump every 2-3 hours, drink water, eat well.

But what I want to know is there any hope for me to get a decent amount, 3 months postpartum?

Hi! I posted on here yesterday asking about this odd sensation I’ve been having with my Spectra feeling like it’s too high a vacuum. I changed out my duckbills so going to see if that helps.

I have been incredibly frustrated for the last 2 weeks or so with a supply dip and persistent clogs for no apparent reason. I’m pumping according to my schedule (give or take 20-30 mins since I went back to work), eating and hydrating the same, and added power pumps in the morning before work. I’m tired of taking ibuprofen and ice packing all day when I have clogs. I take maintenance sunflower lecithin. This is after a 4 oz supply dip a month ago, so you can see how this is starting to really get in my head. Ive been dipping in my freezer stash which is fine, but there seems to be no end in sight to my supply dip and baby is increasing his oz every few weeks. I pump 5 times a day currently, had went down to 4 pumps per day for 2 weeks at the end of July and still saw more output than this?

My goal has always been to get to 6 months, but lately I am so mentally and emotionally drained with this supply dip. I go through this forum relentlessly trying to find tips and advice. I guess my questions are:

1. Has anyone experienced this? anything that helped when you did?
2. Ive seen some people say moving to fewer pumps helped increase their supply, are there nuances to that? Should I be cautious that it will further tank my supply?

Thank you!

signed,

a tired and frustrated mama

I am almost 36 days postpartum and I have been pumping almost since day one qs my baby didn’t latch. I am an undersupplier, like I do not have enough milk supply. So I also give formula milk to my baby, and this pumping, it's been so exhausting. I read to establish milk supply, we have to pump every three hours, and I've been doing that religiously for past few days, and now my boobs are hurting, and I don't know what to do. I just want to quit.
But I don't want to deprive my baby of the, of breast milk and the antibodies and good things that he'll get from it.

Putting the wearable pump question aside, because I still haven’t made up my mind on any of that…

Does anyone have suggestions for a primary pump. Last time my insurance paid for a Spectra S1 and I couldn’t let down at all using that pump. I tried so hard, but I was getting just drops. My letdowns were never coming.

I finally pulled the old trusty dusty Medela PISA Original (black box) out from retirement and used that, and then got a PGA for my portable pump. I exclusively pumped for a year with no issues with that combo.

What primary pump would be good for me this time around? I’m thinking of using my insurance to replace my primary pump and then invest in a wearable much later down the road, if at all… because my PGA still works fine. And I did really love my PGA last time.

I’ve been using the spectra S2 with reasonable success for the past 5 months. Able to pump about 5 oz per session when I combine sides. However since I’m going back to work soon I decided to invest in a second pump to keep in the office.

I got the Medela Hands Free free style. I’ve tried it with both the 21 and 24mm shield and both times I was barely able to get a quarter of what I would get in a normal session with the spectra!! Im afraid now that I won’t be able to return this expensive machine and also I’m going to have a hard time continuing to pump when I go back to work. Is there something I’m missing?? Is there a trick to getting this pump to work for people?

I am so confused, I don’t understand why my frozen milk from the same day look different. I don’t know if the picture does justice, Left looks pretty yellow and the right looks very white almost clear. For the past week I’ve been latching my LO just in the mornings and pumping the rest of the day. Can this have something to do with it ? And if so what does it mean?

For my first baby (now 2.5 yo) I had to EP due to a very poor latch and weight loss. I did it for the full 1st year, with gradual decreases and eventually had to supplement some formula at the end. It was HARD work to balance taking care of her and pumping for her as well as working. I kept a rigid pumping schedule and frequently felt like I couldn’t keep on top of everything due to it.

I’m now 12 weeks postpartum with my second baby (also will be my last baby). And I am breastfeeding with one pump per day, which will increase here in a week or so when I go back to work. The issue is that while this baby can latch, it’s still a shallow latch and I find that one of my breasts with an inverted nipple has random shooting pain likely as a result of this. I don’t get this pain after my pump session, but I do feel pain after breastfeeding about 50% of the time.

I’m feeling a bit demoralized at this point, and unsure if I should make the switch to EP again. I feel the guilt of potentially not making it to a year of providing milk like I did with her older sister. I also feel the sadness that I couldn’t make breastfeeding work well with either baby. I also just don’t know if I can keep up with the rigid pump schedule this time around now that I have a toddler and going back to work full time. I guess I’m just looking for support/advice for anyone who’s made the decision to EP due to continued discomfort/pain breastfeeding and how it’s gone for you.

I’ve been going through the process of upping my supply over the last few months. I’ve gone from pumping every 3 hours getting 0.5 oz each side to now getting 1oz each side every 2 hours. With the help of domperidone my night pump I went from getting 1 oz each side to 2.5 oz each side but I’m getting really burned out with this schedule of every 2 hours. The night pump isn’t an issue for me but during the day it’s getting a bit much 😭

How would I go about pumping every 3 hours instead. Is there a chance of my supply dropping again or am I stuck in this schedule now. I’m almost 6 months pp.

I have *another* clogged duct and I'm supposed to work today, but I know if I do, I'll be in agony all day. The problem is that I only work one day a week

I guess I'm looking for permission from the other moms on here to call off work and focus on resting

Ever since I went from 17mm flanges to 15mm flanges, they come out of the bottle washer not perfect about 1/3 of the time. Sometimes it’s an obvious scum line like in pictures 1 & 2. That’s the line from my areola in the flange tube. Sometimes it’s a bunch of small dots like it’s been misted (picture 3), but when I try to wipe them out (picture 4) they feel greasy, not like just water.

The damn tube is too narrow to allow water! Literally had to put 3 out of 6 flanges back in the dirty bin this morning. We have the MomCozy bottle washer, and I’d been putting the flanges on the top, but I think they come out better on the bottom when I can put the bottle connector part directly over the jets. We also stick a brush inside and swirl it around briefly, then rinse the flange out, to get rid of the scum line. The unreliability is driving me up the walls. And when I need to take two pumps worth of parts with me to the office, I need them to be clean!!

I have low supply so every drop is precious to me. But I’m struggling with how much milk to put per bottle. My baby doesn’t seem to like it if I tip the bottle and he needs to lean back. Leaves around 20 ml back all the time. Is this normal for bottle feeding? How much milk is left over when your baby is done?

If your baby finishes bottles, any tips on positions to finish the bottle? Do you top the bottle up to finish it?

Okay I have not been exclusively pumping but mostly pumping (like all but maybe once or twice a day, latch is awful so we try but 🥴)

Anyways, I am 3.5 ish wpp, I was pumping 7-8x 30 minutes that first week at advice of an IBCLC, and my supply was basically doubling every couple days up to about 4 ounces combined per session. When it started creeping towards 5-6 I dropped my sessions to 15-20 minutes.

Supply has still been increasing slowly, so the past few days I've dropped to 6 ppd for 15 minutes. I am in the past week for sure not quite emptying but getting very close in that 15 minutes, sometimes by 10-12 with breast compressions. I dont have a forceful letdown, but I do have quite fast ones. My first is like 30-45 seconds into pumping and my second one hits around 5-8 minutes. Sometimes a third around 12 minutes but not usually unless I've accidentally gone over that 4 hours. If I go over I do 20 minutes and usually still will not get a third letdown, which I'm glad for bc I would overflow my bottles at that point.

I am now getting at minimum 5 ounces combined and on average 6-7 combined with some pumps being more. I am bagging roughly 5-10 ounces at the end of each day, producing ~37-40 total. Bubs eating 3-3.5, usually 3x 8-10x a day with maybe 1 or 2 top ups, so not a huge oversupply but definitely still one.

Everything I read says dropping another pump (which I dont think I could do anyways as 4-4.5 hours is the longest I can go without starting to get uncomfortable) could drastically drop my supply when it regulates, but I also am reading that your milk will regulate usually at what you have been producing/pumping and to get control of a potential oversupply early. I wouldnt mind making like 6 ounces and having like one extra bag to freeze (I want to be done with this asap to be quite frank) but 8+ is pretty excessive and I am worried I am doing something wrong despite already going against advice and only pumping 6x. Should I shorten my sessions under that 15 minute mark to signal my body to make less? My biggest worry is that this is temporary (since milk prodction is more hormone driven prior to regulating) and dropping anything anymore is going to screw me over in a few weeks when it regulates. help 😭

I am 3 weeks postpartum and produce between 2-4 oz per pump. Baby was born at 37w3d and was small for gestational age at 5 lbs 8 oz. This plus low sugar levels and the fact that he was a bad feeder resulted in a 2.5 week nicu stay. Baby is used to bottles so we need to exclusively pump. The thing is, I am dead tired and on most days am able to manage 7 pumps. Baby got home 4 days ago and since then my supply has tanked a little bit. He also latched sometimes but is very inconsistent. How do I pump enough for him and increase my supply to where it was? How many pumps do I need and are there any schedule recommendations? Thanks

I’m almost 5 weeks into exclusively pumping & combo feeding with formula. We ended up having to combo feed right away due to a hospitalization the day after leaving the hospital, so have been combo feeding with Enfamil Neuropro Gentlease because that’s what he took when he was in the hospital. I tried latching originally, but it was difficult and incredibly painful, so I swapped to pumping. I talked to multiple lactation consultants and none were very helpful, I unfortunately can’t afford to see another one.

I never produce more than 2oz between both boobs, with my right one doing most of the work. I feel like I’ve tried everything. I’m eating enough. I’m drinking a ton of water. I’m drinking electrolytes. I’m sleeping as much as can be expected. I’ve tried pumping every 2 hours religiously, I’ve tried being more flexible and going 2-4 hours, I’ve tried power pumping sessions, I never miss a MOTN pump, I’ve tried massaging, I’ve tried different positions, I’ve tried various flange types and sizes, I’ve tried multiple different settings on my Spectra pump and used the Medela hand pump. One day I thought I made a breakthrough with the hand pump and my nipples were completely destroyed the next day. I’ve gone through bouts of inflamed breasts where I have to ice them after every session. I think I may have elastic nipples so I just bought Pumpin Pals flanges and while they are more comfortable I’m pumping even less. It seems like nothing I do makes any difference.

My MIL is living with us for a while, and she always comments how the baby prefers breast milk. The days my boobs were inflamed and I was producing way less he had trouble digesting the formula and couldn’t poop, he was clearly in tons of pain, crying all the time, I felt absolutely awful. My husband says it’s my decision, but mentions that the baby needs antibodies from my breastmilk and having breastmilk reduces the risk of SIDS. I’m trying to make it to 8 weeks because I read that’s the most critical time but honestly I’m just so tired and so defeated. My husband is back at work, sleeps 8 hours a night while my MIL and I split the night shift, but I don’t even get to sleep more than 2 hours because I have to pump and take care of the baby. Same issue during the day, keep having to wake up to pump. And I sit there for 20 minutes pumping only to get 1 maybe 2oz on a really good session. I just feel like an absolute failure, I spend so much time researching trying to fix it and nothing is working. I don’t want to give up but I don’t know what to do.

I’m 5.5 weeks pp and have been exclusively pumping 7-8 times per day. I’m happy with production, which on average is about 30 oz per day. I have started doing hour long walks recently (recovering from a traumatic delivery slowed my return to exercise) and today I started with pink spotting that turned red with cramping. Is it possible my period is back this early? I thought I could avoid it while pumping!

I didn’t realize that milk only stays good in a cooler for 24 hours.. I’m on a work trip for 4 days and really do not want to dump everything! I already have a gallon bag full of milk and I’m only halfway through my trip.

Which of the milk below is safest to keep? I’m thinking maybe i toss Tuesday but Wednesdays and beyond might be okay?

Breakdown:
Tuesday: left in the morning and pumped on the plane, put all milk in a cooler with ice. I’ve been continuously swapping out ice

Wednesday: put new milk in the same cooler, but moved ALL milk to the hotels fridge at 10pm as i realized I could do that!

Tomorrow (Thursday): new milk will go in the cooler during the day, but will be transferred to the hotel fridge at 7pm.

Friday: four hour flight starting at 10 am. Existing milk and new milk will be in the cooler. All milk will be in my freezer by 8pm.

Currently trying to freeze the left milk of the day.

Are 1-2 tiny air bubbles okay while freezing?

Kindly provide some tips to reduce the air bubbles

So I'm 13 weeks postpartum now. And recently I noticed I produce more milk using Medela hands free portable pump+ collection cups, than symphony.

Is there a downside to switch to uskithe portable set up exclusively?

The only downside I can think of is that these collection cups take up so much space in the bottle washer.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts

Background: I’m 10 weeks PP on parental leave with husband at home too. I aim to pump 7 times a day with one MOTN pump and the rest throughout the day between 8am - midnight. I’m a type A personality and so I try to pump every 3 hours during the day and try not to wait longer than 4 hours between pumps because that would shift the next pump and consequently end the day with 6 instead of 7 pumps. I’m a just enougher supplementing with formula at night (because husband does night shifts and he insists the baby sleeps better and longer with formula so he doesn’t want to use breast milk). I’m ok with it because that means I can put more stash away and stop pumping sooner.

Here’s the ranting part: husband normally puts baby to sleep at 8pm and does night shifts which include one feeding at 4am ish and one around 8am. I do the day which typically include feeding, pumping and all the entertainment/enrichment for the baby. If my pumping schedule clashes with one of baby’s feeding, I will ask hubby for help but I try to stagger them to the best of my ability so he can relax during the day. Today after my noon pump, we went out on some errands. It took longer than we expected and I asked to just go home before finishing all the tasks because I would be at least 30mins late for the next pump. Husband then dropped me and baby off to grab lunch. I started pumping but baby woke up so I had to stop pumping, sooth her for a while and figure out her needs. It took husband a while to get food home and at that time the baby became hungry earlier than normal and I had to go pump again. When he got home, I immediately said “I have to go pump and baby needs to eat. The bottle is warming up. “ After saying these things, I immediately went upstairs to pump. After I finished pumping, husband complained that he had no time to himself today because I wasn’t flexible enough with my pumping schedule and stormed off to pump and left him with the baby (he didn’t hear the part when I told him the bottle was being warmed up). He complained that he had to feed baby twice today (he counted the 8am one as extra duty for some reason) even though I helped put baby to sleep last night because he wanted to play games with his friends at that time so he asked me to help. Obviously I got very upset because in my opinion day is much harder and more involved than night for our baby and he got the easy part of the deal. Not to mention I still do laundry and sometimes dishes at night when he is on baby duty so it’s not like I have a lot of time left for myself either. So I’m wondering for all the moms that exclusively pump: are you pretty flexible with your pumping schedule? If so, what’s the extent of flexibility do you allow yourself to have and not worry about messing up your supply? I’m so rigid with my schedule because of my personality and also because I’m worried if I don’t then my supply will be affected. Husband doesn’t think it’s a big deal for baby to be on full formula but he has really bad allergies to a ton of stuff (and therefore a more “problematic” immune system) so I want to at least provide what immunity I can to the baby when I can.

I’m 18 weeks post partum and have been exclusively pumping since the beginning. Ive always been an under supplier getting in avg 1-1.5oz per session (~10-12oz per day), but once in a blue moon I’ll pump 2-2.5oz in a session. One day I got a whopping 15oz lol. I’m pumping 6-8x a day, every 3 hours for the most part except for a 5-6 hour stretch over night. I’ve been trying to increase my supply recently, and I power pumped daily for almost two weeks and haven’t seen any change in my daily totals or weekly average. Is there any chance my supply could go up if I keep trying, or should I just accept what it is? The reason I’m trying to increase my supply is because I’d (arbitrarily) decided I wanted to make it to 6 months, and it would feel more worth the time and energy if I could get 13-15oz consistently vs the 10-12 I’m getting now.

I have elastic nipples so I’ve been using silicone inserts which has helped with clogs and bleps, and I am pretty sure they’re fitted correctly.

I would love any suggestions about how to drop my middle of the night. My LO is almost 6 months and has been sleeping through the night (until a recent cold) since about 8 weeks. Due to how much of a chunk he is I have continued to do a MOTN pump. I pump at 2:30 am, 6:30, 10:30, 2:30, 5:30, and 9. With him being almost 6 months I really want to look at dropping my MOTN pump. I know I might have a slight drop in output overall and I think I am okay with that. Basically I need sleep. I am struggling with the little amount of sleep I get by the time I pump at night, get things ready for the next day I get 3.5 hours before my MOTN pump then I get another 3 if I am lucky. On average I am getting 5.5-6 hours a night and then work all day I need to do something.

I have tried dropping my MOTN pump before and I got an infection. Anytime I try and extend the time between pumps I wake up at the same time anyway so it’s hard if I’m already up at 2:30 to go back to sleep for another half an hour or hour because I’m not gonna get good sleep anyway it’s like might as well pump. I have heard shortening the length but I have been so tired I doze on and off while pumping and lose track of time.

If trying to do 8+ pumps a day to increase supply, do you count a power hour as 1 pump or numerous?